1. Westward Push
QUESTION – What do you think this painting is portraying? What do you notice or find most interesting?

3. Background
Congress was controlled by Republicans who passed many new laws that favored Rep. ideals and Northern Interests.
Ex. Tariffs to protect Northern industry, Transcontinental railroad and Homestead Act to encourage Western Settlement. Building increased, hired many veterans, Irish immigrants from the East and Chinese immigrants from the West.
Railroads made settling the West simpler.

4. 1870
1890

5. Availability of Land
The west was settled by a variety of people for a variety of reasons.
Some sought fortunes, some were trying to escape problems in their lives and others were seeking adventure.

6. What are the Forces PULLING settlers West?
1) Gold gold discovered in Colorado
- The idea of “Get rich quick” drove people West
2) Land - Homestead Act (1862) -160 acres of land free to anyone who would live on and cultivate it for five years.
- 400, ,000 families move West
3) Transportation (RR) - After 1869 people could ride from coast to coast
- Covered wagon = 15 miles per day
- Train = 50 miles per hour
- Approximately 3000 miles from coast to coast
How many days in a covered wagon?
How many hours in a train?

7. What forces PUSH settlers West?
1) The end of the Civil War
- Thousands of African-Americans escape the South
and head West. (EXODUSTERS)
2) Overpopulation (In some areas)

8. Homestead Act of 1862 Opened the West for Settlement
Families got 160 acres if they would live and cultivate the land for 5yrs – either planting crops of raising livestock
Brought many farmers, factory workers & immigrants to the Great Plains - Wyoming and Dakotas
By million acres claimed. $10 filing fee per homestead

9. Availability of Land

10. Other Acts
Morrill Act – Provided federal land grants to western states for the purpose of establishing colleges and universities. Extended to southern states in 1890.
Hatch Act – Created agricultural research stations in western states for the purpose of supporting western farmers.
Combined, these acts had the effect of supporting and encouraging the settlement of western states and territories.

11. Hardships of all kinds were faced by those who settled the west.
Distance from towns and neighbors.
Need for self-sufficiency.
Harsh weather.
Native American hostilities.
Criminals.

12. Exodusters
Former slaves who sought to leave behind the memories of captivity in the south and moved west to seek their fortune.
Civil War veterans, immigrants from Europe and elsewhere, poor farm families, miners, land speculators, missionaries and many others moved west in the post Civil War era.

13. Homesteaders
Used sod to build houses, developed new planting methods (dry farming), dug deep wells to reach water.
Some stayed on their homesteads & earned the title to their land. Others gave up; moved back East; others gave up their homesteads & found success in business in the new towns that developed.
OK Land Rush - last major land give-away in April -1889

14. Mountain Men Lived in the wild
Many were accepted by the Native Americans, lived with them and married them
Hired as explorers and guides to chart unknown territory
Jim Bridger

15. Miners/Prospectors
California Gold Rush 1849, Pikes Peak 1861, gold found in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming; gold and silver in Nevada; copper, lead, iron ore - used in industrial processes in factories back east.

16. Started with prospectors panning for gold or silver, but followed by mining companies with special equipment. Towns grew up almost overnight. But when minerals ran out, towns were abandoned - ghost towns - Boom-Bust cycle.

17. Cowboys Cattle Drives - Large herds of longhorn cattle thriving
in Texas due to lots of grassland for grazing.
Used locally for food and leather
During the civil war, beef became scarce and prices rose
Became more economically viable to move cattle to RR and ship back East for slaughter and sale.
Cowboys led cattle on cattle drives hundreds of miles (Chisolm Trail)up to the RR heads in Kansas and Missouri - Abilene and Dodge City

18. Cowboys

19. Native Americans Lost their native homelands
Changed their culture to accommodate the white settlers
Many deaths

20. Barbed wire - invented by Joseph Gliggen for fencing where there were few trees.
Allowed ranchers to fence in huge areas of range land for grazing cattle
Ranchers start to replace cowboys - Why?
Barbed wire and the harsh winters of kill of much o the TX herds. Ranching becomes more profitable than cattle drives.

21. Technology
Steel plows, seed drills, reapers, threshers
New strains of seed, dry farming, commercial farming (bonanza farms)